F4H (F-4) Phantom Index

I'm probably not going to get around to consolidating my Phantom posts from three different blogs but it's not too hard to create an updated index for them. The most recent is from today (and I've already revised it three times) on U.S. Navy Aircraft History: http://thanlont.blogspot.com/2013/03/f4h-1-f4h-1f-f-4a.html

It provides a summary of the F-4A versus F-4B designation change history (in brief, the designation change was related to the change to an uprated J79 engine, not because of the raised canopy as some think) along with an illustration of the differences between the F-4A and F-4B production inlets.

While I was visiting the Quonset Air Museum the other day with Larry Webster, I was able to confirm that the F-4B fixed ramp extends about an inch farther forward that the F-4A fixed ramp, since there are examples of both airframes there. I had guessed that to be the case from photographs, based on the relative closeness of the forward edge of the ramps to the access doors and the lower-right kick-in step. (That, of course, is insignificant in 1/72 scale and I doubt that even 1/32 kits are accurate to within an inch.)

There are several other mentions of the F4H/F-4 on that blog that you can find by typing F4H into the search box on the upper left-hand side of the web page.

The first configuration summary for the early Phantoms is here: http://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2009/11/early-phantom-iis.html

I followed that up here: http://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2011/05/early-phantom-iis-redux.html

This is a summary description of the major differences between the F-4A and F-4S: http://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2012/12/you-cant-tell-phantoms-without-score.html

This post was focused on the stabilator changes over time: http://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2011/09/f-4-flapstabilizer-change.html

And this one, on the difference between the small and large radomes: http://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2012/11/f4h-1-large-and-small-radomes.html

This post provided some pictures of the original canopy and was subsequently updated with an illustration of the inlet development history: http://tailhooktopics.blogspot.com/2013/02/f4h-1-flush-canopy.html

Really diving deep, here is an illustrated description of the early RAT: http://tailhooktopics.blogspot.com/2012/12/early-f4h-rat.html

Note that I revisit these posts from time to time and discover reasons to revise them with changes, corrections, and updates. I'm also in the process of refining some of my illustrations of the early F4H changes, so stay tuned.